Coast FIRE Calculator — Australia
Coast FIRE is the milestone most people hit years before they realise. Once your existing investments are large enough to compound into your full FIRE number by your target retirement age, every further contribution is optional — you only need to cover your living costs.
Your situation
All figures in today's dollars.
What you have and what you add
What you need invested today to coast
$570,015
You have $250,000 invested, so you are $320,015 short of the coast line. At your current contributions you cross it at age 52.
- Full FIRE number
- $1,875,000
- Coast FIRE age
- Age 52
- Time to coast
- 17 years
General information, not advice
Your balance against the coast line
Once the projection crosses the coast line you could stop contributing entirely and still land on your number.
- Projected balance
- Coast FIRE line
- Projected at retirement
- $2,183,387
- In outside super
- $1,000,031
- In super
- $1,183,356
If you keep contributing
Reachable at any age
Locked until 60
Present value on ASIC's standard basis
Present value is a future amount in today's dollars. This page converts at your 2.5% inflation rate, which keeps figures in today's prices. ASIC asks calculators that project super to also show them at 3.7% a year until retirement age — about the rate wages grow — and 2.5% a year after, which measures them against today's wages instead.
| Amount | At 2.5% inflation | ASIC’s basis |
|---|---|---|
| FIRE number at 60 | $1,875,000 | $1,401,616 |
| Projected at 60 | $2,183,387 | $1,632,144 |
| Super at 60 | $1,183,356 | $884,592 |
ASIC’s basis changes rate at age 60: the retirement age used here, but never before 60, when super unlocks, and 67 when a plan never reaches retirement.
Assumptions and limitations
Every result above rests on these assumptions, and each can be changed in the inputs. Why the defaults are reasonable
- Return
- 8.0% a year, before fees
- Fees
- 0.50% a year
- Inflation
- 2.5% a year
- Withdrawal rate
- 4.0%
- Preservation age
- 60
Limitations
- One steady return. Both pools grow at the same rate every year. Real returns vary, and a poor run before retirement would leave you short of the number even if the long-run average holds.
- No tax and no contribution limits. Contributions are taken as you enter them and are not checked against caps. Tax on investment earnings outside super is not modelled, so their growth may be overstated.
- It stops at your retirement age. It does not test whether the money then lasts through retirement. The FIRE calculator and the drawdown simulator do.
The coast number at every age
Read across to see how much less you would need if you pushed your retirement date back — or how much more if you brought it forward.
| Age | Coast number | Projected | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| 35 | $570,015 | $250,000 | Keep saving |
| 36 | $597,821 | $291,195 | Keep saving |
| 37 | $626,983 | $334,400 | Keep saving |
| 38 | $657,567 | $379,712 | Keep saving |
| 39 | $689,644 | $427,234 | Keep saving |
| 40 | $723,285 | $477,075 | Keep saving |
| 41 | $758,567 | $529,347 | Keep saving |
| 42 | $795,570 | $584,169 | Keep saving |
| 43 | $834,378 | $641,665 | Keep saving |
| 44 | $875,080 | $701,966 | Keep saving |
| 45 | $917,767 | $765,208 | Keep saving |
| 46 | $962,536 | $831,535 | Keep saving |
| 47 | $1,009,489 | $901,098 | Keep saving |
| 48 | $1,058,732 | $974,054 | Keep saving |
| 49 | $1,110,378 | $1,050,569 | Keep saving |
| 50 | $1,164,542 | $1,130,816 | Keep saving |
| 51 | $1,221,349 | $1,214,978 | Keep saving |
| 52 | $1,280,927 | $1,303,245 | Coasting |
| 53 | $1,343,412 | $1,395,818 | Coasting |
| 54 | $1,408,944 | $1,492,907 | Coasting |
| 55 | $1,477,673 | $1,594,731 | Coasting |
| 56 | $1,549,754 | $1,701,523 | Coasting |
| 57 | $1,625,352 | $1,813,524 | Coasting |
| 58 | $1,704,638 | $1,930,989 | Coasting |
| 59 | $1,787,791 | $2,054,183 | Coasting |
| 60 | $1,875,000 | $2,183,387 | Coasting |
How this works
Can I stop saving and still retire on time?
The formula behind it
Your coast number is your FIRE number discounted back at the real rate of return: annual spending divided by your withdrawal rate, then divided by (1 + real return) raised to the number of years left. Everything is computed in today's dollars, which is why the real return — your nominal return less inflation — is what matters.
Why it changes how work feels
Coast FIRE turns a decades-long obligation into a much smaller one: cover this year's expenses. That is what makes a lower-paid but better job, a sabbatical, or dropping to four days a week suddenly affordable, long before full financial independence arrives.
The catch this page checks for
Most coast calculators quietly assume you can reach all of your money. If you plan to retire before your preservation age, part of that balance is locked away, and clearing the coast line does not mean you can actually stop working. The bridge panel tests whether your accessible pool covers the gap years.
What it deliberately ignores
Coast FIRE answers exactly one question: when can contributions stop. It does not model tax on the way in, contribution caps, or a variable market. Use the full FIRE calculator once you want the complete picture.
Coast FIRE when most of your money is in super
Coast FIRE is the point where what you have already invested will grow into your full FIRE number by your retirement age without another dollar from you. From then on, work only has to pay for the present.
In Australia the idea has a twist. As long as you are employed, your employer keeps paying the Super Guarantee, 12% of your earnings, whether you are coasting or not, and since 1 July 2022 there has been no minimum earnings threshold (ATO). A lower-paid or part-time job still adds to super, so coasting here rarely means contributions stop altogether. To see the effect, enter what your employer would keep paying as the super contribution and set the outside-super contribution to zero.
From 1 July 2026, under Payday Super, employers have to pay the Super Guarantee within days of each payday rather than quarterly, so it reaches your account sooner (Moneysmart).
Two pools, two coast lines
A single coast number hides a timing problem. Super cannot be touched until 60, so if your target retirement age is earlier, part of your FIRE number has to sit outside super. The calculator shows the coast number for your whole portfolio and runs a separate bridge test: whether the money you can reach covers every year from your retirement age to 60.
With a retirement age of 60 or later, the bridge test passes automatically and coasting is mostly about super. With an earlier one, you can clear the coast line and still fail the bridge, because the growth is happening in the pool you cannot reach yet.
A worked example with real numbers
Take the calculator’s starting scenario: a 35-year-old with $250,000 invested, adding $29,000 a year, who wants $75,000 a year from 60.
- The FIRE number is $75,000 ÷ 4% = $1,875,000.
- The real return is the return after fees, adjusted for inflation: (8% − 0.5%) against 2.5% inflation is about 4.9% a year.
- Discounting the FIRE number back 25 years at that rate gives the coast number: $1,875,000 ÷ (1 + 4.9%)25 ≈ $570,015.
- With $250,000 invested today, the gap is $320,015. Keeping up $29,000 a year closes it at 52, 17 years from now. From then on, contributions are optional.
These are the calculator’s defaults, not a recommendation. Enter your own figures above to see yours.
Fees and returns decide the coast number
The coast number discounts your FIRE number back over decades, so it is very sensitive to the return you assume. The calculator uses one return for both pools, less fees: by default 8% before fees, 0.5% in fees and 2.5% inflation, which gives a real return of about 4.9%.
A percentage point either way changes the answer a lot. Over 25 years, a real return one point lower raises the coast number by roughly a quarter. Super funds publish each investment option's fees and long-term return objective, so entering your own fund's figures gives a coast number that means more than the default.
After you reach Coast FIRE
Reaching Coast FIRE does not mean you can retire; it means the remaining work only has to cover today's costs. People often describe it as the point where part-time work, a lower-stress role or a career break becomes affordable.
To model part-time income through to retirement with full tax and super rules, use the Barista FIRE calculator; to test whether the money then lasts through retirement, use the FIRE calculator.
Frequently asked questions
How is the Coast FIRE number worked out?
It is your FIRE number discounted back to today at the real rate of return: annual retirement spending divided by your withdrawal rate, then divided by (1 + real return) raised to the number of years until retirement. With $75,000 of spending, a 4% withdrawal rate, 25 years to go and a real return of about 4.9%, it comes to around $570,000.
Does super count towards Coast FIRE?
Yes. Super keeps compounding whether or not you add to it, so it counts towards the coast number. What it cannot do is pay for anything before 60, which is why the calculator tests the bridge separately when your retirement age is earlier.
Do Super Guarantee payments count while I coast?
They do, as long as you are employed. Enter what your employer would pay on your coasting income as the super contribution. That keeps the projection honest: coasting in Australia usually means your own voluntary contributions stop, not your employer's.
Which retirement age does the calculator start with?
60, the preservation age, because coasting to the age super unlocks avoids a bridge. You can set any age; before 60, the bridge test shows whether your investments outside super cover the gap.
Is Coast FIRE the same as Barista FIRE?
No. Coast FIRE is a milestone: your investments will reach the full FIRE number on their own, so work only funds the present. Barista FIRE is a plan to leave full-time work early and cover part of your spending with part-time income while the portfolio covers the rest. The Barista FIRE calculator models that with tax and super.
Sources
Keep going
Other Australian calculators
FIRE
The full projection: earliest retirement age, the bridge years, and whether the money lasts.
Barista FIRE
Model part-time income covering part of your spending while the portfolio keeps growing.
Lean FIRE
Independence on a deliberately small budget — and an honest test of whether it survives.
Fat FIRE
A no-compromise retirement, where contribution caps and tax become the binding constraint.
Drawdown / SWR
Thousands of simulated market paths to test whether your withdrawal rate survives.